Saturday, November 8, 2008

World's Smallest Dog : 4-inch Lake County Chihuahua

I, Alfredovilla [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

4-inch Lake County Chihuahua

The smallest dog is probably the 4-inch Chihuahua named "Tiny Dancer", he is a brown, long haired tiny Chihuahua. He weighs 18 ounces and isn't taller then 4 inches.

With a bit of luck "Dancer" will be listed in the Guinness World Records, what would be great, but he first needs to reach the age of 1 year before being listed in the book. The former smallest dog Danka Kordak of Slovakia was 5.4 inches tall , from foot to the top of the shoulder according to Guinness.

This makes "Tiny Dancer" approximately 1 inch smaller, Gomes the owner says :" Once my little Dancer will reach the age of 1 then we would give him a big party!"

It all began when Gomes founded the abandoned Chihuahua from his neighbor who moved. So Gomes rescued the dog who was in a bad shape. They saw that she was pregnant and when she gave birth to her puppies they saw one tiny pup " Tiny Dancer". First they thought that she would die, but a miracle happened and she stayed alive.

World's Biggest Horse

World's Biggest Horse, Luscombe Nordram
The biggest horse in the world is called, Luscombe Nordram. This giant shire horse lives in Australia and with his 2.057m he's the biggest horse in the world, according to the Guinness World Book Of Records. He weighs about 1.3 tonnes (1300kg), so he's not that light. And guess what, he's still growing!

Nordram's grandfather, was already one of the biggest horses in the 1980's, so you could say it runs in the family. He is big, and so are the costs of keeping him, this is why is the owner has considered selling him.

Nordram has been trained to transport heavy loads, but no one wants to enlist such a big horse, due to his size.

With his size and length Nordram can call be called one of the biggest animals to roam this earth.

World's Largest Ship : Knock Nevis

biggest ship in the world
Door Modified by myself (user:Dz), based on en:User:Astronaut for diagram, Delphine Ménard (notafish) for Knock Nevis silhouette, combined by with GIMP (Based on Image:Tanker-size-comparison.png) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) undefined CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


World's largest ship is named the Knock Nevis and is owned by the Fred Olsen Production. Other names of this enormous ship through the years were Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking.

The length of this ship is 458.45 m and it has a storage capacity of around 564,650 metric tons of deadweight (DWT).

This ship is a supertanker that was built in 1979 and went out of service in 2004 because it was damaged by the the Iran-Iraq war while it was crossing the Strait of Hormuz. Now the ship is permanently located in the Persian Gulf, operating as a FSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading)

World's Biggest Snake

biggest snake in the world
Door Tigerpython (Eigen werk) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) undefined CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The world's biggest snake is probably a Reticulated Python that was found in Indonesia. This snake is the longest and heaviest snake that was ever captured by humans. The python that was captured had a length of about 14.85m (48.72ft) and a weight over 447kg !

It was a hard task to capture this enormous snake and therefore there were needed like 65 men to capture it. Once they had captured the snake and kept it in captivity, they needed to feed this enormous reptile with around 3 to 4 dogs a month.

However the Guinness Book of World Records lists another Reticulated Python with a length of about 9.75m as the longest snake ever captured. Hopefully they will change it and make the 14 feet Reticulated Python the longest and biggest snake that was ever captured.

(the picture above isn't the biggest snake in the world)

Friday, November 7, 2008

The Tallest Man Who Ever Lived On Earth :Robert Wadlow

biggest man in the world, tallest man in the world
By The Telegraph newspaper, Alton, Illinois [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The name of the tallest man that ever lived on earth was Robert Wadlow. He was 8 feet and 11 inches tall or 2 meters and 72 centimeters and weight 197 kg! Born in 1918 and died in 1940 at an age of only 22 years.

He didn't lived long because of his huge height and died young in his sleep at 15 Juli 1940. At least 40.000 people have been to his funeral and to remember him they have made a statue of him at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Dental Medicine.

World's Smallest Continent

smallest continent in the world
Door Ssolbergj [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

World's Smallest Continent lays between the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Yes, you guessed it, it's down under, better known as Australia. The biggest city in Australia is Sydney, but it's not the capital as many think, the real capital of Australia is Canberra.

Australia was a former colony of England, and was used as a prison island, various criminals have been sent from England to Australia as punishment for their crimes.

Australia is a beautiful country with a lot of diversity and different sorts of wild animals that only appear in Australia like the famous kangaroo and koala, which are the proud symbols of Australia. Australia mainly exists out of dry land and deserts, called the 'bush'. This is why big cities are located close to the coasts.

Gibson - World's Tallest Dog

Rytis Mikelskas [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

(Dog above isn't Gibson, but they're the same race))

Gibson is the tallest dog on the plant!

Gibson is a "Great White Dane" with a height of about 104 centimeters! He weighs approximately 170 pounds, so basically he could smash you down to the ground, when he gets exited.

Luckily, he's a harmless Great Dane that obeys to his owner without hesitating. Not only does he own the record of being the tallest dog on the planet, but he's also the tallest Great Dane and the tallest therapy dog, that roams this earth.

Thanks to his big size, he became one of the most popular dogs, and he appeared in various tv productions such as: The Oprah Winfrey Show and Tha Larry King Show, just to name two.

Worlds Smallest Mammal :Facts About Bumblebee Bat

Bat
By Damir Jelic (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

The World's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat, Craseonycteris thonglongyai.

This little mammal is named after the bumblebee because it's such a small animal that weighs as much as a dime with a skull size of about 11 mm.

This little bat lives in caves of limestone hills and is mostly active at dusk. Once it's dusk they go on a hunt for little insects that they can find on trees. They are solitary mammals that live in groups, but rather prefer to hang alone.

Sadly it's a very rare animal that is small in size as in number, the bumblebee bat was discovered in 1974 in the region of Karmhanaburi Province in Western Thailand.

This bat is now an endangered specie because of the deforestation that is destroying their habitat. The last count of these bads was been made by the Royal Forest Department of the Thailand Government and they only counted like 160 specimens. With this low amount of specimens it makes it one of the twelve most endangered species on the planet.

Worlds Smallest Girl: Jyoti Amge Of Nagpur

By Gwrthanesh (through camera) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


The world's smallest girl lives in India and she's only 58.42 centimeters high what isn't so high, even for a dwarf it's kind a small.

Jyoti Amge is 15 years old and has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia. She now weighs 5 kg and is fully grown, but what you do need to know is that she isn't unhappy about her small size.

She says: "I am proud of being small. I love the attention I get".

She lives a "normal" life and eats, dreams, and lives like any other teenager of her age in India. She goes to the local High School in Nagpur and enjoys learning new things every day.

However there will always be a big difference between her and other students. Just look at the picture above, she just isn't taller then a bicycle...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Worlds Biggest Spider:Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula

goliath spider, world's biggest spider
Door Snakecollector [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The World's biggest spider is the Goliath bird eating Tarantula, Theraphosa blondi.

The scientific name comes from the Greek word "thera" and "phosa", what means wild animal and light. The most common name "Goliath bird eating Tarantula" was given by some explores from the Victorian era who witnessed one eating a hummingbird and reported the sighting to the Western world who were amazed about this gigantic spider.

The Goliath bird eating Tarantula is native to the rain forest regions of northern South America. It can reach a leg span of 30 centimeters or 12 inches with a weight that lays between 100 and 120 grams. These birdeaters usually live in dark holes that were made by themselves or other animals like mouses.

The average life span of the female Goliath spider lays between 15 and 20 years, but males who die soon after maturity can only reach an age between 3 and 6 years. The color of this big spider is mostly dark to light brown with thousands of hairs on their body.

This spider seems dangerous, but is totally harmless for humans. However they do carry venoums fangs of about 1 to 2 centimeters. A bite of the Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula can be compared with a wasp's sting that is totally harmless, but painfull.




A great video about the tarantula!